News in Brief: A summary of developments across Los Angeles County | Community News File / Los Angeles

Police Find Headquarters of Clothing Counterfeiters

After about three months of investigating a group they suspected of manufacturing counterfeit designer T-shirts, Huntington Park police netted their biggest catch Friday when they discovered the group's manufacturing headquarters in Los Angeles, authorities said.

Police found five heavy duty printing machines and one large heating appliance allegedly used to make fake logos on shirts in a small warehouse in the 2400 block of Grand Avenue, said Huntington Park Police Sgt. D. Fitzgerald. With the machinery were about 100,000 plain shirts ready for printing, Fitzgerald said.

The machinery was used to produce designer shirts--including ones stamped with Nike, Adidas and Disney logos--that were distributed around Southern California and as far as Texas, he said.

The find came after the arrest Thursday of three people at a nearby warehouse storing thousands of counterfeit shirts, he said.

Police worked on the investigation with a private investigators' firm, Dakota Agency, which specializes in counterfeit merchandise cases, Fitzgerald said.